Introducing Growth Avenue: Your path to successful international expansion

The US market offers Australian businesses access to a massive potential base of customers, billions in potential VC funding, and a legacy of innovation with a large talent pool.

So why then, do so many businesses still struggle to gain traction?

There are a number of reasons, but despite what many businesses might think, most of it boils down to ineffective preparation.

We often see founders and business leaders looking to expand into the US make a few key mistakes. In fact, FD Global Connections founder and CEO Trena Blair has spoken a lot about what can make or break businesses when launching into the US including a lack of understanding of the local market, a ‘fly in, fly out’ mentality and having little to no network on the ground.

But we want to do more than to communicate the potential pitfalls of expansion. We’re also focused on developing and implementing solutions that can significantly increase businesses’ chances of success in the lucrative US market.

That’s why we’ve launched Growth Avenue, a first-of-its-kind program designed to provide Australian businesses what they need most when expanding internationally – access to a deep understanding of the local market and the ‘on the ground’ network needed to gain traction and start generating sales.

With Growth Avenue, we’re connecting businesses with our curated network of US-based sales and business development pros – what we’re calling Interim Business Development experts (IBDs).

It’s our way of opening up our ‘little black book’ of hand-picked contacts who can help fast-track your sales.

How does it work?

When success hinges on winning sales quickly, nothing compares to having experienced, local business development knowledge working for you on the ground.

That’s exactly what Growth Avenue is designed to do.

Our network of IBDs are career sales professionals with expertise in specific industries, such as Banking, Insurance, Health, Food & Beverage, Lifestyle and more. After assessing your business to ensure you’re ready to expand successfully into the US market, we match you with an appropriate IBD, relevant to your business’s industry, goals and unique needs.

From there, each business and its IBD will choose how they can best work together to achieve their goals and for how long, including setting a remuneration agreement and other work terms. This level of personalisation means businesses can focus on what matters most to them. This is not a ‘one size fits all’ accelerator program.

“It’s often said that it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Personally, I believe it’s a mix of both but the who proves much more challenging when you’re a growing Australian business looking to take on the massive US market,” said FD Global Connections CEO Trena Blair.   

“Our Interim Business Development professionals are ‘super connectors’ – the type of people companies need fighting in their corner to make the right introductions and meet with prospects. They are highly-skilled and experienced in their industry domain and have the local know-how to generate that all important revenue.”

“This is a unique opportunity for Australian businesses – small business to mid-sized corporates – to connect with our trusted and experienced network. We’re tapping our contacts to significantly de-risk your expansion into the US.”

Why FD Global Connections?

The strength of the Growth Avenue program lies in the strength of the FD Global Connections network, which has been cultivated by Trena Blair over her more than 20 years’ experience as an international executive at companies including Optus, Westpac and American Express. Having lived and worked in New York, she has managed global regions including Asia Pacific and the America’s and was recently named by Forbes as an expert in expanding businesses from Australia into the US.

Ms Blair also developed and launched the International Business Experience (IBE) subject for MBA programs at the UNSW Business School (AGSM), and created the highly-successful US Study Tour based on Design Thinking for University of Sydney Business School undergraduates. She is a Trade Advisory Board Member at the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia and was also engaged by Austrade to establish their San Francisco “Landing Pad” program for early stage scale-ups.

FD Global Connections IBDs are currently working across the US, with the majority based in New York City – now the world’s second largest startup ecosystem, with plans to expand the program into other international markets in the future.

Learn about the Growth Avenue program now and register your interest.